ABSTRACT
At the very dawn of the space age, the governments pursuing various activities in space were driven by security and prestige to the effective exclusion of other considerations. Other facets of space activity emerged gradually from those initial efforts, but their growth in importance and activity were always bounded by the earlier and more established national space activities. The experience of the USA saw the initiation of civil and private activities, or at least allowed others to do so, while the Soviet programme remained more focused on a narrower socialist and government view of what was required. For example, telecommunications companies in the USA sought to move quickly to exploit the obvious potential for space-based communications. Those efforts forced a response by the US Government to keep such endeavours under control, so that they would not interfere with security priorities, while also facilitating other social and economic priorities or goals. Here, the focus is public sector organizations whose primary mission is not space oriented, but the activities of which impact what is accomplished in the area of space. One important facet of activity by these newer participants, whether public
or private, is the ability to change expectations first and then policies. The traditional or long-standing space participants usually at first resist such changes, but over time new attitudes and perspectives arise regarding what is deemed acceptable, leading to dramatic changes in policy. As this political and bureaucratic process continues, it brings private players into the policy process providing necessary political push to achieve the changes sought. This change process remains incremental rather than dramatic, but the outcomes appear enduring. The analysis herein encompasses diverse levels of engagement in space
activities, including the international and regional levels, but primarily focuses upon national and sub-national public space actors, their private de facto partners and their impact on the space policy process. This chapter begins with a brief survey of the larger historical context within which to place the activities of these more recent players, the existence of which was not considered in the early central government-driven scenarios. Other participants were found in science fiction, the bold entrepreneurs in space. This was long considered unlikely due to the cost of travelling into orbit and working there, but now these new players are becoming engaged without, in many cases, physically entering Earth orbit or expecting to do so.
